More Than Black Face and Skirts: New Leadership To Confront the Major Dilemmas in Education.

Marshall, Catherine

To address minority students' needs, increase school administrators' instructional leadership capacities, and involve parents in improving schools, school districts must recruit large percentages of women and minority educators to school leadership positions. This will not be a simple task, as entirely new definitions of school leadership are needed. Educators are being challenged to (1) find ways to keep at-risk students in school; (2) create stimulating learning environments; and (3) garner community support. Women are still underrepresented in school leadership, and minorities have not benefited from affirmative action and other equality-based legislation. The dominant reform proposals are flawed for not promoting equity, for failing to involve black educators in reform discussions, and failing to propose measures ensuring minorities' access to school leadership positions. What is needed is a reconceptualization of school leadership and active recruitment of women and minority school leaders. Education's legitimacy crisis will not be solved by putting black faces and skirts on the same old kind of leadership. When women and minorities are trained to fit into the administrative culture, they are often programmed to forget valuable attributes, qualities, and values. Intelligent, motivated educators are more likely to leave the profession, rather than alter their identities to suit white male leadership norms. Specific structural changes are necessary to achieve equity and quality in school leadership. (84 references) (MLH)